


swan song

by bittersweetResilience



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (sorry), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Drabble, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, zuko is dead in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25606267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bittersweetResilience/pseuds/bittersweetResilience
Summary: Iroh breaks out of prison. Some days later, he meets Piandao, dressed in funeral attire.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 91





	swan song

Iroh shows up at the gate of Piandao’s manor and allows the white lotus tile to slip from his sleeve when Fat opens the door. His hair is bedraggled and messy, but his smile betrays only cheekiness. “Would an old friend care for a game of pai sho?”

Piandao arrives not in his customary dress, but in sweeping white robes that wipe the smile off Iroh’s face. Funeral attire.

They bow to each other, one master to another, one Grand Lotus to another. Then they greet each other as friends.

“Iroh, forgive me for—” Piandao starts, at the same time that Iroh gestures at his robes.

“For whom—”

Both of them stop. Piandao’s eyebrows furrow. “For whom…?”

“For whom are you mourning?” Iroh asks, a little more unsettled now. Forgive him? What in the name of Agni would Iroh be forgiving him for?

Piandao freezes. He stares at Iroh unreadably. After a moment, he says, voice measured and cautious, “You do not know?”

“No,” Iroh replies, equally slowly. “Should I?”

Piandao’s face falls. He looks down, and Iroh recognizes the expression: grief. His heart thumps loudly in his chest.

“I had been traveling,” Iroh continues, not knowing what he’s saying. “I escaped prison on the Day of Black Sun. If there are news, it would greatly reassure me to know.”

“Forgive me,” Piandao says again, his eyes pained. “I am not the one you should be hearing this from. Your nephew, Iroh.”

The floor drops out from underneath Iroh’s feet.

“What?” he asks. It comes out as a strained breath, light as the feather of a turtleduck.

“The official story is that there was an assassin,” Piandao says. “An earthbender, of course. The prince was a tragedy, a martyr, and he will be avenged on the day of Sozin’s comet when the Earth Kingdom is razed to the ground.”

His gaze is heavy. Both of them know that this cannot be further from the truth.

“And the unofficial story?” Iroh whispers, not sure whether he wants to know.

“Rumors say that he faced his father on the day of the eclipse, saying treasonous things.” Piandao’s voice is steady. “The Fire Lord struck him with lightning. And…” His face twists. He looks deeply sad now, regretful. “And that his father told him his uncle was dead, and so he did not fight back.”

All of his strength drains out of him in an instant. Iroh staggers.

Piandao moves to support him, but the sight of his white robes is too much to bear. Iroh slumps down and shuts his eyes. What had seemed only moments before like a spirit tale, a clandestine exchange of palace gossip, is suddenly slamming into him with all the force of La’s waves. This is real, he realizes. This is real, and his nephew is dead.

Zuko is dead.

Both of his sons—

Iroh’s shoulders are shaking. In the end, his nephew was so, so brave. He had finally discovered what was right, had finally seen that his father was cruel and wrong all along.

Despite his silence, despite his rejection, Iroh could only hope that Zuko had also known, in his last moments, that he was loved.

**Author's Note:**

> swan song (n.)
> 
> a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death


End file.
